Immigration news

Laszlo Andor, the EU's commissioner for social affairs and social inclusion, says that the debate on migration within the EU has become 'emotional and misguided'. He said that the press, particularly in Germany and the UK, had been printing 'myths' about immigration.

Mr Andor was speaking at the launch of new rules on the eligibility for social security benefits of EU citizens who have moved to other EU states. The European Commission hopes that these guidelines will clarify the law for member states.

The UK's opposition Labour Party has accused the Coalition government of failing to protect UK workers from the effects of immigration from Romania and Bulgaria. On 1st January 2014, transitional controls which barred workers from the two countries expired. Many commentators predicted a mass influx of workers from the two countries.

Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007. At that time, the UK, like most western European Union countries imposed controls on citizens of the new countries barring them from moving to live and work.

Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat at the centre of a diplomatic row between India and the US has returned to India without standing trial for visa fraud. Mrs Khobragade had been charged by a grand jury with underpaying her Indian employee Sangeeta Richard, in contravention of US visa law.

A member of the lower house of the US Congress, the House of Representatives, Darrell Issa,has told journalists that he does not think that immigration reform will pass in the US in 2014 because there is too much 'animosity' between Republicans in Congress and President Obama and the Democrats.

Representative Issa told TechCrunch magazine 'Comprehensive immigration reform is hard to do with the best environment between the executive branch (the President) between the House and Senate. We don't have the best opportunity'.

Viviane Reding, the vice president of the European Union, has accused the UK's Prime Minister David Cameron of risking the future of the British people by using populist, anti-EU rhetoric to try to win votes.

During a 'web chat' streamed from Brussels on Thursday 9th January 2014, Ms Reding said that the Prime Minister is misleading the UK public by claiming that Britain is under siege from an army of European immigrants who will steal British jobs and/or live off British benefits. She said that the figures show that the UK has benefited from EU immigration.

A report from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce warns that Canada risks losing out on the brightest immigrants if it does not increase the speed of its 'Expression of Interest' (EOI) immigration system which is due to be introduced in 2015.

Former Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney announced in 2012 that Canada would work towards the introduction of an EOI system once a backlog of applications for permanent residence by skilled immigrants had been eliminated.